[E3 2011] Sony Reveals PS Vita, New Uncharted 3 Info, More

Closing out day one of E3 2011, the Sony press conference debuted the official title of the NGP as the PlayStation Vita, as well as firmly pushed 3D and PlayStation Move gaming. Here’s what they showed:

Games

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Showing off some waterlogged gameplay of Nathan Drake on a storm-beset ship, Uncharted 3 has never looked better. The experience is cinematic in scope, with controls that look tight, intuitive and fun.

Resistance 3
One of the primary pushers of the Move and 3D technology, Resistance 3 will come with full Move support. A bundle will be available at launch that includes the full basic Move setup, including camera and controller, the Sharp Shooter peripheral and Resistance 3. In addition, Sony unveiled a 3D TV bundle aimed at lowering the price point of 3D gaming. The 24" PlayStation branded 3D TV will come bundled with Resistance 3 and a pair of 3D glasses at a price point of $499.99. The TV will also feature a new technology that will allow two players to view separate images on the same screen, effectively negating the need for split-screen gaming.

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
These two iconic PlayStation titles have been long rumored to be receiving the HD treatment.

God of War Origins Collection
This collection brings the PSP titles God of War: Chains of Olympus and Ghosts of Sparta to the PS3 in the form of an HD remake.

BioShock Infinite
Though BioShock creator Ken Levine used to be one of the biggest opponent of motion technology, he announced that Sony has him convinced, and Move support will be coming to BioShock Infinite. However, he was quick to reassure that the game would still be fully playable without Move controls.

Dust 514
A groundbreaking persistent-world shooter, Dust 514 will be the first game to feature cross-platform support between PS3 and PC. Dust will combine with massively popular space MMO EVE Online to create a single persistent world.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
A quick trailer debuted Irrational Games’ new entry in the Sly Cooper series.

Other titles offering Move support include:
NBA 2k12
Medieval Moves
Starhawk
LittleBigPlanet 2
Star Trek

Games with exclusive PS3 content:
Need for Speed: The Run
Exclusive supercars.
Battlefield 3
A free copy of Battlefield 1943 will be included on the disc.
Saints Row: The Third

PlayStation Vita
Well known up until now as the Sony NGP, short for “next generation portable,” the PlayStation Vita will feature a number of fantastic hardware abilities. Most of these were already known, so Sony used the conference to focus on games. However, the other big announcement was that the system would debut this holiday season for $249.00 for the Wifi-only model, and $299.00 for Wifi + 3G.

Games

Uncharted: Golden Abyss
A gameplay demo of the PSV version of Uncharted looked simply beautiful. The OLED screen is vibrant and the hardware is more than capable of running the powerful graphics engine. Touch-screen inputs create new ways to play the game, including running your finger along a path to send Drake climbing along, as well as new combat controls using screen inputs. All of these are entirely optional if players wish to play the game without.

Ruin
An action-based RPG, Ruin introduced the concept of cloud-based saving. Players can save their game to the cloud while on-the-go and pick it up exactly where they left off playing on the big screen with their PS3.

ModNation Racers
Also used to show off a new feature, the PSV version of ModNation Racers will allow players access to the wide variety of user-generated-content currently available for the PS3 version. Players will also be able to compete cross-platform between the PSV and PS3.

Street Fighter x Tekken
SFxTK has been known for a while, but a PSV version was officially announced. In addition, it will include Cole from InFamous as a playable character.

Here are our Games Editor Kirk Hamilton’s with thoughts on the Sony conference, straight from E3 itself:

Sony’s press conference (which, I should note, is going on quite loudly as I type this), was extravagant, loud, long, and in my opinion incredibly impressive. CEO Jack Tretton started out by addressing the PSN-Hacking/Outage elephant in the room (without totally addressing it), and moved quickly on to a raft of new games, hardware, and services.

It kind of just kept coming and coming, but let’s see if I can share a few highlights that sounded particularly good. I’m a fan of HD bundles of older games (I loved God of War Collection, since I’d never had a chance to play those games back in the PS2 Era), so it was great to see that both of the PSP God of War games as well as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus will be released as HD-erized bundles with full 3D support.

And let’s talk about that 3D thing. I remain unconvinced that it’s as vital a feature as Sony seems to believe, but they went a long way towards convincing me to give it a try by unveiling their 3D TV Bundle – $499 is still steep for a 24" monitor, glasses and a game, but it’s a start. Time will tell if it’s enough to get anyone but the most hardcore players to finally play in 3D. Furthermore, the ability to have two players wearing 3D glasses see two different 2D images, removing the need for split-screen co-op gaming, feels nigh-on revolutionary.

The 3D, it should be noted, really does look cool – I was probably more impressed by the 3D demos on the 70-foot screen than I’ve been by any 3D game demo I’ve seen. Then again, everything is impressive on a 70-foot screen.

The rest of the press conference had a bit of everything – Kobe was pretty genuinely funny, and I was intrigued by Dust 514, a shooter that ties into the Icelandic MMO EVE Online. As a friend sitting next to me mentioned, “Basically, the console players will be peons, fighting battles on the ground for the PC players.” Seems kind of humorously fitting. At least, I bet PC gamers will love that.

And then we get to the PSVita, a.k.a. the NGP, a.k.a. Next Generation Portable. Here’s another piece of tech of which I have been skeptical. but damned if Sony didn’t pretty much sell me on it. The touch screen looks great and adds some nice, accessible touch controls to Uncharted to allow players who don’t like standard thumbstick controls to finally get to play that game. Integration with other PS3 games like ModNation Racers seems to work really slickly, and dear lord did the LittleBigPlanet game they showed look solid. I’m kind of a big fan of LBP already, but the implementation of the touch screen should be a really natural fit for that game. Hell, I already want to reach out and touch the world of LittleBigPlanet, and this’ll just get me one step closer. Very much looking forward to checking it out on the floor.

So with all that, plus a huge video montage of the over 80 games that publishers have in development for the Vita, they were set to wrap, but the room was primed for the price. And so, coming this holiday season, the non-3G Vita will go for $249, or, the same price as Nintendo’s competing 3DS. Sony cannily announced the price via email press release about ten minutes early so Twitter was already abuzz with the number, but the number came on the screen to mad applause. Felt surprising to see Sony handle a PR move well, and they earned this win.

With that kind of serious hardware, a massive software lineup, and a competitive price, Vita is… well, Vita is going to sell a whole, whole lot of units. Microsoft’s press conference earlier today wasn’t even in the same league, and Nintendo has to offer one hell of a lot of 3DS announcements, as well as possibly a price cut, to compete. We’ll see what tomorrow morning holds.

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